Unemployment. Cancer. Fracking. GMO’s. Anxiety. Depression. Climate Change. Do these seem unrelated to you? That is the illusion we are presented everyday – there are myriad problems all seemingly caused by different things. The truth is, each of these is caused by one root cultural problem: love of money over love of life.

Companies are so bent on making profit, they’ve structured law and politics to facilitate their ruthless pursuit of more money, even at the cost of innumerable human lives and ecosystems. I’m not attacking any one company, or any one person, but rather commenting on the culture we’ve created.

In a grassroots democracy, the people’s voice is heard. Unfortunately our system is a republic, represented by the interests of a small minority. There’s a glaring gap in what our government promises and what it’s able to fulfill. One part of the problem is that the public isn’t educated about the process of democracy itself. We can’t participate if we don’t know how it works. The recent uprisings abroad and at home have lifted our collective spirit to believe that democratic change is possible. OccupyAmerica is a demonstration to what power we have if we get together and organize. But what if this energy was funneled to a very specific purpose? Something that really gets to the heart of the problem? A grassroots civil rights movement?

Most people want a comfortable life, where they don’t have to worry about not having food, a home, or access to healthcare. Can we agree that all people want such a life? What if it was our inalienable right to have a comfortable and healthy life, stipulated by secure access to:

• clean food
• humane working conditions
• physical health + medical care
• emotional + spiritual well-being
• homes + shelters
• clean water
• clean air
• healthy, sustainable environment

The right to a secure and healthy life is eroded by lack of access to many and all of these things. Restricting access to a basic need is a very good way to make a lot of money.

What if the Earth had rights?

It wouldn’t be legal to pollute or act unsustainably anymore. If you want to maintain clean food, air, and water, the community and environment needs rights too:

• Right to natural communities such as streams, freshwater ecosystems, mountains, lakes, etc.
• Right to clean air, free of toxic compounds
• Right to clean water, free of toxic compounds
• Right to sustainably produced food
• Right to GMO-free food
• Right to community self-government
• People as sovereign

Every social movement in history was catalyzed by a small group of activists working underground. They were able to change history ultimately by rewriting law, via constitutional amendments. Frequently widespread change started with small changes in city by city, state by state. Demanding for more rights seems revolutionary, didn’t we already seal the deal in the American Revolution? Unfortunately, the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement were needed to grant freedom and full citizenship to African Americans. The Women’s Suffrage movement was needed to liberate women. We are still fighting the battle for equal rights with these issues, not to mention the new frontiers of gay/transgender rights and environmental rights.

Fortunately, there is work being done today to help catalyze a grassroots civil rights movement. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund has been working with local communities to empower them to say “No” to corporate operations.

Their first major victory in restructuring the law happened in the unlikely neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The City Council voted unanimously to pass a local ordinance that specifically banned the practice of natural gas extraction, also known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”. Some council members were in full support of the ordinance right at the start, but others were hesitant. The concept of local, community authority was new and foreign. Fortunately, hundreds of residents called, emailed, and showed up to council meetings to voice their support for the ordinance.

What’s special about this bill is that it grants rights to people and nature, and takes away a corporation’s right to “personhood” and “protections of commerce or contracts” afforded by the US and Pennsylvania Constitutions. No license from a State or Federal agency can violate the stipulations of this Ordinance to deprive the city residents and its natural community of their inalienable rights.

After Pittsburgh’s victory, a slew of townships throughout New England passed similar ordinances against fracking and in support of community rights. More communities are following suit when faced with an impending hazardous operation. CELDF’s work has helped communities like Barnstead, New Hampshire, ban corporate water extraction through similar community rights ordinances. They have also helped Ecuador recognize the right of nature to exist in the national constitution.

Democracy School

Most people have little idea of why corporate personhood is the real root of all their problems. This is partly because we have little idea of how democracy really works. The less we know, the easier we are to confuse and manipulate. CELDF has a Democracy School program, a 2-day intense workshop about the legal structures to reform in order to establish a people’s democracy. In it, teachers discuss the history of corporate personhood, the inner workings of our justice system, and the potential for transformation. If you’d like to host one in your town, contact them. They also have online videos of their class.

So where do you fit in? What can you do to support this movement?

• Start talking. Change the conversation. Instead of thinking there’s nothing you can do to overcome corporate authority, look to these success stories to know that there is a way to gain more freedom. Talk to your local officials, participate in city government, express your opinions publicly, and start changing the collective conversation.
• Follow your heart. Most of the activist groups that formed to help push these ordinances to victory were started by simple folks who cared. The Marcellus Protest started with a small group of people who connected over the anti-fracking film, Gasland.
• Educate yourself. Watch documentary films, read informative essays and books, and talk about what you learn with other people.
• Connect with activists. Attend film screenings, conferences, protests. Meet the people working underground, feel their energy, and become a part of this growing movement.
• Connect with everyone. It doesn’t matter who it is, find a thread of connection. We are all human beings going through essentially the same things – fear, love, survival, jobs, food, life. You can connect to anyone. Everyone is your friend, a potential ally when you need a hand.
• Host or participate in Democracy School. Watch the videos online, host one in your town, or spread the word. Educate yourself about how our government truly works.

This is by no means a definitive plan to success! It’s a starting point, a shift in perspective, that hopefully can translate into greater cultural transformation.

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I guess so, which is too bad.

If all of these people didn”™t have children and were completely self-centered, I could maybe understand. After all, after 75-odd years of living or so they won”™t be around to see the effects of any damage they may have contributed to. They could take the money they garner thanks to their greed, and live a comfortable life with no concern for others while dying wealthy. If selfish oil company CEO”™s didn”™t have extended family, parents, friends, or pets, I could totally get why they would want to drill in the Arctic Circle so they could make a few more million dollars. After all, with no one to give a rat”™s you-know-what about, why not destroy the earth? I mean, who cares? It”™s worth millions! As long as I get mine, screw the billions of other people around me!

The really sad thing is that there is money to be made in renewable energies and resources, and yet the powers that be continue to defend our dependence on fossil fuels. If the subsidies given to oil companies by the Federal Government, which was $113 billion in 2005 (which help to keep our gas prices low), was directed towards renewable energy, imagine the progress we could be making. Instead, those involved in the fossil fuel industry would rather rape the earth of every last drop of oil/coal/whatever in the pursuit of even bigger riches than they already have. For a group of people who live on the same planet as I do, I find it incredibly disheartening that such a small group of fellow humans can have that little regard for the billions of the rest of us and the future of the only planet we have.

If you don”™t believe in climate change, that”™s ok with me. Find the handful of “scientists” who say it”™s all bunk, buy into it line, hook, and sinker, and stick to your version of fact. It”™s all good with me if that”™s as far as it goes. I can understand your skepticism, I really can! But that”™s a far cry from accepting money for turning a blind eye to the destruction of our planet, which is what too many politicians and organizations are doing on a daily basis. There are a lot of political footballs that our politicians can have their way with. They can make some up, throw them at each other, and use them to try to raise money for themselves. I get it; I understand how that works. But the environment? We all need a healthy one; the rich, the poor, politicians, hippies, and everyone in-between. You would think that eventually even the most die-hard climate change denier would at least acknowledge that the damage we are doing isn”™t very smart for a people who consider themselves so evolved and intelligent. The health of our environment should not be a political tool in any way, shape or form.

But maybe we aren”™t as advanced as we liken ourselves to be… and I hope that isn”™t our eventual downfall. If we can clear out those who have been pilfering the earth for the last 50 years and get a truly enlightened new generation in charge, I still have faith that things can change. As young as I like to think my generation still is, my real hope is that today’s 10 year old kids will be the ones to truly change the way we do business on our home planet.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

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We may not realize it, but the health of the plant kingdom is crucial to the health of the planet and the animal life (which includes humans) it supports. Through photosynthesis, plants provide the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat and are thus the foundation of most life on Earth,reports the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based nonprofit dedicated to securing the future for endangered plants and animals throughout the world.

Unlike animals, plants can’t readily move as their habitat is destroyed, making them particularly vulnerable to extinction,says the Center. Habitat destruction just one of the threats plants face can lead to an extinction debt whereby even some plants that are plentiful now could disappear over time by being unable to disperse to new habitat patches. And global warming is already starting to exacerbate such problems. With plants making up the backbone of ecosystems and the base of the food chain,says the group, thats very bad news for all species, which depend on plants for food, shelter and survival.

A 2009 report by the UK-based nonprofit, Plantlife, found that 15,000 of the 50,000 or so species of wild plants known for their medicinal qualities in traditional remedies are being overexploited and are potentially headed for extinction. The group says the fact that most people around the world – including some 80 percent of all Africans – rely on herbal medicines obtained primarily from wild plants underscores just how serious a problem a mass extinction of wild plants could be for humanity, let alone for the environment. Commercial over-harvesting does the most harm, though pollution, competition from invasive species and habitat destruction all contribute. Commercial collectors generally harvest medicinal plants with little care for sustainability, Plantlife reports, adding that shortages already exist in China, India, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda.

Another group, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles and maintains the famous Red List of endangered species around the world, found that a whopping 70 percent of the 12,000-plus plant species it has evaluated to date are threatened with extinctiondespite the fact that each year about 2,000 new plants make themselves known to science. Of course, the organization only evaluates plants that are rare or have suffered major declines.

Meanwhile, researchers in the UK estimate that up to 33 percent of all flowering plants worldwide are threatened with extinction. That percentage reflects the global impact of factors such as habitat loss, says Lucas Joppa, the study’s lead author, who adds that climate change could increase the toll.

This worldwide threat to plants is just part of a larger biodiversity crisis, and the United Nations has declared 2010 The International Year of Biodiversity to raise awareness and encourage action to help stem the tide. The project’s website features listings of celebrations taking place around the world as well as resources for those who want to help spread the word and be part of the solution.

CONTACTS: Center for Biological Diversity, www.biologicaldiversity.org; Plantlife, www.plantlife.org.uk; IUCN, www.iucn.org; International Year of Biodiversity, www.cbd.int/2010.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, c/o E The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

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I urge you to pass a budget resolution that reflects the priorities outlined in President Obama’s budget proposal and provides the resources necessary to implement the president’s call to cap global warming pollution, invest in clean energy solutions and reinvest in our environment.

It is particularly important for Congress to pass a budget resolution that reflects the president’s commitment to solving global warming. At a time when we’re facing the greatest economic challenges since the Great Depression, capping global warming pollution would generate funds that could be invested in clean energy technology to spur job growth, improve our national security and protect our planet.

Also critical are the budget’s proposed funding increases across a broad spectrum of important environmental priorities, including clean, renewable energy, energy efficiency, transportation, water infrastructure, cleaning up hazardous waste, preserving public lands and protecting wildlife.

President Obama’s proposed budget demonstrates a firm commitment to investing in a clean energy future and a healthier environment. Once again, I urge you to follow the president’s lead and vote Yes on a budget resolution that fulfills this vision.

Click here to go sign the letter to Congress.

Help support The Good Human! If you do your Amazon shopping through my Amazon link, a very modest sales commission is generated. This is true for any product at Amazon, not just the eco-friendly ones. Please keep this link in mind for all of your Amazon purchases, as when you click through one of them and do any shopping, it really helps keep The Good Human going. -> My Amazon.com Affiliate Link. Thanks!